The Lone Ranger
by Gulrix
Summary: Will has been seemingly betrayed by the Ranger Corps. What will he do now that he is on the run from them?Will he run to any of his friends? Or will he try to live life alone on the brink of survival? Rated K  for mild violence.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: This is (officially) my first story. So please don't be surprised if it's a piece of crap. Thanks for reading :) **

Will was running through the forest at full speed not even worried about what was ahead of him. The real threat was behind him. He couldn't figure out what had gone wrong. Crowley said that he failed his examination and that he had to be terminated. Then he pulled out his sax knife and attacked at the same time that Halt pulled out his and lunged at him as well. He barely had enough time to dive out of the tent and start sprinting away. Now with his former teacher and the head of the ranger corps after him he didn't know if he'd be able to survive.

"Think", he told himself as an arrow whizzed past his head and into the tree beside him. The only reason it missed was because Will had chosen that sudden moment to jump to the side on a different route. "Eff", he whispers to himself as he draws his long bow and nocks an arrow. He hides behind a tree and peers out hoping to get a sight of his attackers. He hears a bow string snap back and pulls his head just behind the tree in time so that it flies past him. "46 more arrows." he mutters to himself. He sees a slight movement to his right and he draws and fires in an instant just as another arrow flies and hits his own in its side out of midair!

"Give yourself up Will!" Will hears Halt scream. "We know what you did. There is no point in running from us." All of a sudden Will hears the steady "whoomp whoomp whoomp" of a throwing knife heading in his direction. He ducks just as the throwing knife hits him square in his left calf.

"Agh!" he says himself as he cringes in pain. "They've got me surrounded", he thinks. Will looks up at the tree he is standing underneath, finds a sturdy branch, then throws his longbow over his shoulder, and jumps up to grab the lowest branch just as another arrow pierces his right calf. His right arm drops instinctively to his calf gripping the upper part to try and cease some of the pain. "Now I can't walk." He says as he swings his other arm up, pulling himself up higher and higher in the tree with only his arms.

Now safely hidden, Will has a debate with himself over what to do next. Even though he has the highest respect for Crowley he would have no problem killing him when the time came, but Halt, he was another story. The mentor that had looked over him for the past 5 years was now trying to kill him. What should he do? He'll think of that as the time comes he says to himself. Right now, he needs to take care of one of the two men, prefferebly Crowley.

He nocks an arrow in his bow and looks around for any sign of movement. There! He pivots silently in the tree and releases the arrow all in a fraction of a second. "Ugh!" he hears a man scream as he nocks another arrow and sends it flying in the same spot and hears a faint, sickening smack. There were no more screams from the man. Will wonders who he just took out as he nocks another arrow and looks for the other man. Tug! He thinks as he searches the ground for movement. How could he forget Tug? "I need to end this fast so that I can get out of here and go get Tug." He thinks to himself. He sets the bow down on the branch beside him and starts to pull the arrow out of his left calf. "Boy did that hurt.", He says as he finally pulls it out and puts the arrow in his quiver. He then looks at his right calf and starts to slowly pull out the throwing knife. He successfully pulls it out and puts it in his backpack. "Always good to have a spare when on the run." he thinks as he starts rubbing some cream on both wounds to numb the pain. 5 minutes go by with no movement of any kind. The numbing solution is now working so he decides to grab his arrow and hop out of the tree. Not a moment before he hits the ground he sees movement to his left. In midair he turns and shoots an arrow in that direction.

He lands on the ground and hears the snapping of twigs as two arrows collide in midair and destroy each other completely. Will, knowing that another arrow was coming any second nocks his arrow and sends another in the direction of the shooter as another arrow flies straight at him. Unluckily for Will the two arrows do not collide again and he hears a sickening rip of flesh in the distance as he feels the impact of the arrow hit him in the neck.

He drops to the ground out of breath, wondering why he isn't dead. He looks down at his neck and sees the arrow lodged in his bronze oakleaf insignia. "What luck." he thinks to himself. He doesn't see anymore arrows heading his way so he feels it safe that he pulled the arrow out of his oakleaf and nocks it in his bow. He points it in the direction of the shooter and slowly walks over to the area where he expected the figure to be.

There he sees him, lying on the ground, Halt, with an arrow through his throught, blood everywhere and Halts glazed over eyes looking up at the man who killed him. Will drops his bow to the ground and starts crying his eyes out. "Why?" he asks the air a million times over the 10 minute course of time he is sitting there. He realizes that he needs to get moving out of the kingdom to start his wonderful life in exile. He looks through Halts belongings and takes his double scabbard and both of its weapons, his quiver of remaining arrows, all of the money in his bag and lastly, Halts silver oakleaf. He puts all of these things in his bag except the arrows which he places in his quiver. He slings his bow over his back and starts to limp back to where the camp was. He trips over something and stumbles to the ground.

It's Crowley's body. Will gasps slightly and stares at the man whom he had killed earlier. Not so shaken by this man's death he snatches the silver oakleaf off of his neck and stands back up and heads to the camp. Once will gets there he looks around the barren camp and cannot find Tug. He looks all over but because of his weakend legs he cannot walk far. He collapses on the ground and whistles for him. He hears Tug whine behind him as if he is in pain when all of a sudden he hears in an unnoticeable voice, "If you move another inch this horses head will be on the ground before you can shoot that nasty bow of yours."

**Now wasn't that a nice cliffhanger! :D haha! I'll be updating this story soon so if you liked it watch out for the update thingy. Please review and tell me what you think about it!**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Heya everybody! :) I hope you liked my last story and said I'd be updating soon so here it is.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters…obviously :P **

_"If you move another inch this horses head will be on the ground before you can shoot that nasty bow of yours"…_

Will puts his hands in the air and says, "I'll do whatever you want, just please don't hurt tug."

"Tug's his name huh? What a stupid name for such an ugly horse. Where did you get this thing anyways?", the voice says behind him. The man then tosses two old looking ropes to Will and says, "Bound your right hand to your right leg and your left hand to your left leg. Will obeys and ties the ropes according to the mans wishes.

"What do you want with us?", Will asks the stranger. "What do I want with you?, he replies, "I'm gonna sell you both as slaves in Skandia that's what I'm gonna do." The man then makes his way over to will and cuts his bowstring. "Dang.", Will mutters.

The man then picks up Will and sets him on top of tug. The man sets Will on top of his Tug and Tug takes off running. "Hey!", the man screams as Tug and Will run off into the distance. Will takes one good look back at the man and realized he is just a lonely bandit. Once they get a quarter of a mile away Will cuts himself free with his sax knife. "Dang Tug, now I don't have a bow. These arrows are near useless.", Will says to his horse. "We might as well head for Araluen to see if we can get in contact with Horace.", he says aloud.

So Will and Tug head off in the direction of Araluen. They take all the back routes and detours they can to remain unseen, but as Halt always said, "If something can go bad, it will." So as Will and Tug pass through one of the many forests on the outskirts of Araluen a peasent farmer sees the boy and his horse riding through. The boy and his horse look oddly out of place so he decides to report his findings to a chief guard.

Naturally the chief guard he happens to report to is Horace. Horace understands the man and recognizes the description of his former friend that betrayed them. Looking to seek revenge, Horace sets out to find and dispose of Will single handedly.

As Will ventures towards Halts old house, a place where he hopes to maybe find some food, a bow, and some clue to why all of this is happening. Horace guesses that Will may go there. So of course the young warrior goes and waits in Halt's bedroom in the house.

Will approaches the house, and seeing no signs of life nearby, he tells Tug to stay in the stable outside and gives him some food. Will then hears a faint, almost inaudible noise of a chair being moved inside the house. Instinctively he draws his sax knife in his right hand and his throwing knife in the other.

He walks to the front of the house, seeing the door slightly ajar, he pulls off his cloak, and throws it into the door and jumps back quickly. As soon as the cloak clears the door a long double-edged sword pierces it. Will then throws his throwing knife at the exposed hand, ripping it from the owners arm. Blood, bones, and skin fly everywhere as the sword falls from the owner's non-attached hand.

Will then kicks the door off of its hinges and sees Horace lying on the ground gripping his right wrist that no longer has a hand. Will's mind goes crazy at the sight of his friend on the ground. Then he realizes that this was the very same person who would have killed him in a second a few minutes ago.

Horace looks up at Will and says, "Please spare me. I promise I didn't tell you what they did. I didn't even want to kill you, I was just following orders.

Will with a now less caring heart says, "Whose orders Horace, your own?" As he recovers his throwing blade from the other side of the room and re-sheathes it. "What did I do Horace? Why is everyone after me?", Will asks his friend.

Will turns around to see Horace sprinting off out of the house. He quickly unsheathes his throwing blade and throws it at Horace. The Warrior, knowing how accurate Will is with it turns and allows the blade to pierce his already injured arm. He cringes again, but hardly feels the blow despite the loss of blood in that arm. He runs toward the kingdom out of Will's throwing range.

Will then draws his sax knife and looks around the house urgently for any sign of a bow he could use. Nothing is there. The house had been looted long ago.

Once he confirms the house is clear he re-sheathes his sax knife He then notices a letter that Horace must have dropped during their small skirmish. The letter is soaked in blood but most of it is ledgible.

"Dear Ho_ce,

My d_ _iend, I am sorry to inform _u that your dear fr_d, Will, has b_ray_d the king_om by t_g my daughter hostage _ _ _ _ _ _, which could very well cause a full scale war. Ne_tiations are ha_g at this moment betw_ us but they a_'t goi_ well. I h_ put out the o_er to all of the ran_ers to kill him if they e_unter him. He_ns knows what h_'ll plan up next. Pl_e let me know if you fi_ anything

-K_n_ Duncan"

"Eff, Will mutters as he tries to interpret the bloody parts. He copies what he deffinately can interpret onto a separate piece of parchment. It now says,

"Dear Horace,

My dear friend, I am sorry to inform you that your dear friend, Will, has b_ray_d the kingdom by t_g my daughter hostage _ _ _ _ _ _, which could very well cause a full scale war. Negotiations are happening at this moment between us but they aren't going well. I have put out the order to all of the rangers to kill him if they encounter him. He_ns knows what he'll plan up next. Please let me know if you find anything.

-King Duncan"

"Ugh", Will mutters to himself. "I need to figure out what this says.", maybe the king has a copy of it. No, no, no. There is no chance of me getting in there, especially without my bow. Maybe I should head to Skandia to see if Erak can tell me what's going on."

So Will walks outside and gets Tug. "Run as fast as you can boy.", Will says, "The kings men may already be after us.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Hope ya'll enjoy this one :) Still more chapters to come.**

Will and Tug rode off at the speed of lightning. One minute they are outside of Halt's house, 10 minutes later they are already outside of the kingdom riding towards Skandia.

"Dang Tug we've got a lot on our hands." Will mutters to his horse. "I hope we make it there before anything bad happens. Will keeps riding until night falls and he is well away from the kingdom. Will finds a comfortable looking spot in the slightly forested area in the woods next to the road. It's a well shaded area where he and his horse could disappear in a second if needed.

"I'll be right back Tug." Will says. "I'm gonna go find us some food." So Will heads out into the forest. He sees a squirrel sitting in a tree eating some nuts. He pulls out his throwing blade, tosses it at the squirrel, and its dead before it can squeak. Will recovers his throwing blade and then picks up the squirrel and heads back to camp.

Once back Will starts a small fire and starts to cook the squirrel. Tug starts to whine slightly. "I know it smells good boy I've gotta eat in a second." Will says to the horse. Tug continues to whine slightly even after the comforting words from his master. "It's almost done boy." Will says as the squirrel finishes cooking. Will then cuts the head off of the squirrel and eats the entire squirrel in a few bites "Well it's not much boy but it will sustain me." Will mutters.

Tug continues to whine. Realization dawns upon Will as he unsheathes both of his weapons, sax knife in right hand throwing blade in left, and dives into a covered brush area as Tug moves into a shades area that makes him practically invisible.

Will then hears a metal on metal 'clang!'. He looks toward the sound of the noise and sees a well built figure fighting off what it seems to be three of the king's rangers in close range combat. Will sprints silently towards the battle and sees that the young warrior is Horace!

Will debates on who to help as he watches the battle. With Horace surrounded the three rangers start taking close shots at the warrior as he cannot see all three at the same time. One lunges at him with his sax knife and he blocks it with his shield as the other two lunge at the same time. He dodges one and parries the other with his sword. This goes on for about a minute as Will notices one of the rangers stepping back from the battle as he draws his longbow and starts to nock an arrow.

Will then decides who to help. In an instant Will overhand throws his throwing blade into the ranger with the bow's torso. The man clenches at his chest as he drops his bow and falls to the ground silent. The two rangers are stunned for a split second and this gives Horace the advantage to cut one of the men in half. Blood explodes everywhere as Will and Horace both notice the last ranger retreating and firing shot after shot at them. Horace hides behind his shield as arrows seem to constantly bounce off of it, and Will sinks back into the forest into the shadow.

Horace keeps his shield up for a good half minute then drops it and sprints towards Will, but Will walks out to recover his throwing knife and steals the dead man's bow and quiver of a dozen arrows. He walks back over to Horace and notices that his shield is supported by only the nub of his hand that Will had sliced of a day or two ago.

"Oh thank the heavens you joined in!" Horace says to Will as he slaps his friend on the back and drops to the ground. He removes his shield and starts rubbing some cream on his nub.

"I'm really sorry about that mate." Will says to his friend. "Nah man doesn't be sorry" Horace replies. "It was my fault anyways. Shouldn't have ever betrayed a friend like that."

Will and Horace then walk back to the camp to find that Horace's horse is already standing with Tug. They sit down on two stumps in the campsite. Horace pulls out a sandwich he had in his pocket and starts munching on it. Will eye it greedily. Horace notices this and says, "Oh sorry mate I forgot you probably haven't eaten in forever!" He then pulls out another sandwich and hands it to Will. He devours it in a second.

"So why are you here man?", Will asks Horace. Horace replies with, "Well I realized that a kingdom who asks you to kill your best friend isn't worth serving."

"That's a good reason", Will says as he smiles at his friend. "So what are you doing now?", Horace asks him. "I'm heading to see Erak to see if he can tell my anything about this note from King Duncan to you that you dropped during our little skirmish in Halt's house."

"Oh that! I was wondering where that went." Horace says. "That would be a good place to start. Why did you do that anyways?" Will then says, "I didn't do anything man. I don't know what they are even talking about. That is why I'm heading to Skandia now. "Oh man then this isn't good. Well do you mind if I stick with you? Deserting the Kingdom doesn't leave me to many places to go."

"Of course man!" Will replies. "I could deffinatly use the company. Will and Horace then sleep a peaceful night knowing that if anybody were to approach Tug would warn them before the man could get a hundred meters close.

The next morning Will and Horace set off towards Skandia. It was only about a days trip away so they got there around mid-day and they approach the man guarding the gate to the castle grounds.

"And who are you two who think they can just walk up and talk to the Oberjarl at any time of the day?", the gate guard says to the two young men. "We are messengers from Arulean who want to discuss buying Princess Cassandra back." Will replies without a moments hesitation. He had been playing this conversation through his head the entire way here.

"Oh, umm…of course right this way." the guard says to them as he opens the gate and escorts them to the Oberjarl's center room. Erak sees the two young men and stands up looking at Horace then seeing Will and retreating back a little. He glances over at a shaded corner of the room and then back at the boys.

"Where is she Erak?" Horace says to the large man. "How did you do that?" Erak says to Will. "Do what?" Will replies to the Oberjarl. "Make two of yourself?" the man replies.

Will senses something isn't right and he draws his bow and reaches back to nock an arrow as he sees a man step out of the shadow of the room that Erak had glanced at earlier. The man was in ranger garb and had a sax knife pulled and had it to a woman's neck. That woman was Alyss.

"You most deffinatly do not want to do that." the man says as Alyss whimpers because he presses the knife closer to her throught.

**Ooh suspense! :D You'll have to wait for the next update to find out what happens next!**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Here it is :D chapter 4! Torture scenes in this one. Please review! Even if it is a bad one. And a special thanks goes out to my Beta Reader and My Main Reviewer! Thanks for all the help!**

_"You most deffinatly do not want to do that." the man says as Alyss whimpers because he presses the knife closer to her throught._

"Will please…" Alyss starts to say as the man presses the knife farther into her neck, drawing blood. "Drop your weapons now or the girl's fingers come off one by one!" the man says to Will and Horace. They two boys look at each other and drop their weapons. They clatter to the floor, making much more noise than usual in the almost silent room.

"Bind and disarm them." the man says to two Skandian warriors standing nearby. They were your average big, hairy, axe-wielding skirls. One of the men disarms Will and binds him. The other disarms Horace and starts to bind him then says to the hooded figure, "Sir, the boy has no right hand. What do I do?"

"Thread it in his arm then." The man says to him. The man then pulls out a dagger and starts carving a hole into Horace's nub. Horace screams in pain and collapses to the floor. Blood starts pouring out from the boy's arm all over the floor. The man then threads the rope through the bottle cap sized hole in the boys arm and ties it to his other wrist.

The men then walk Will and Horace over next to Alyss. Will looks at Erak and says, "Why Erak? Why did you betray us?" Erak replies with, "A Skandian is always open to the highest bidder." The former friend says in a cold, uncaring voice. "Take them to chamber 4." Erak says to the men holding the captives."

The men start to lead Will, Alyss, and Horace into a stairwell on the wall behind them. It is a long, dimly lit stairwell that seemed to go down for miles. After about 15 minutes of walking they finally arrive at what seems to be the smelliest place in all of Skandia, and that is saying something.

The guards walk Will and Alyss over to one chamber and chain them to either side of the wall in the cell. Then they walk Horace a little ways down the hall way and chain him inside a separate cell. They lock the doors then start heading back up to the Oberjarl's palace.

Now that they are alone the three friends take time to take in their surroundings. The chamber is lit by 2 torches hanging on the wall on either end of the chamber. It is about 10 yards from one wall to the end. There are a total of ten cells in the chamber, five on the left, and the same on the right. There are bones and corpses littering the floor in most of the chambers. Luckily Will and Alyss got a bodiless one. Horace wasn't so lucky. There was a decaying body of what seemed to be a pregnant woman in his cell. You could hear him throwing up.

"Oh lord guys. There is a dead pregnant chick in my cell!" Horace says to his friends. "This is so nasty. I think I'm going to take a nap." So Horace, despite the nastiness of his cell, curls in a ball and starts to sleep.

Alyss then looks at Will and says, "Oh Will! You came for me! Thank goodness." Will looks at her and says, "We need to talk." Alyss looks at him questioningly and listens carefully to every word that he says. He tells her about everything that has happened to him and Horace since the end of his ranger finals.

"Oh wow." Alyss says after he finishes, "That's some deep trouble you've gotten yourself into."

"Yeah." Will replies. "We need an escape plan. Did you see anything we could use to escape on our way down here?" Will asks her as he scoots next to her.

"No." she says. "I didn't see anything." She looks at him with tears in her eyes. "I've missed you Will. A lot." She says as she moves closer to him. "We haven't seen each other in a while and, well, I was hoping I could make up for it with this."

She leans forward and kisses him. Will returns the kiss and wraps his arms around her while she does the same. They hold each other there for a while taking in everything they could in this moment.

"Awe! Well isn't that sweet!" a voice says from outside the cell. Will and Alyss both turn instantly to see who just disrupted their moment. It was the hooded figure from earlier. He was standing in front of a man who had a wooden, brief case style thing in his hands. He was old and wrinkly and mostly hidden by the shadows across the room.

"Sorry to disrupt your moment, but we've got some business to take care of before you can get back to your snogging." The man says sarcastically. A Skandian that they hadn't noticed before then stepped out from the shadows and undid Horace's cell lock, waking him from his sleep.

"What do you want?" Horace says in a mumbled, half-awake voice. "We've got some questions to ask you my friend." The man says. The Skandian warrior then walks into Horace's cell and tightens his chains so that he cannot move and so that he is spread out like a starfish on the floor.

The Skandian warrior then steps back into the shadows as the old wrinkly man sets down his briefcase outside the cell. He opens it. There are at least 20 different knives, syringes, needles, and other various sharp or dulled objects that could only be used for one of two things. Either this man was a surgeon, or he was here to torture Horace.

Horace sees the man and starts to say something but the man then takes a rag out of his pocket and stuffs it deep in Horace's mouth so that he cannot speak. "Are you ready to begin?" he asks the hooded figure. "Yes, just one more thing." He replies. The man walks over to Will and whispers in his ear, "Soon there will be a war my friend. Skandia and Arulean will start it but the whole world will be dragged in, and you can't do anything about it."

Will looks at the man as if he is an immature middle-schooler. The man then walks back over and says, "Proceed."

The old man picks out what seems to be an "L" shaped razor blade. Horace's eyes go wide with fear as the old man approaches him. The hooded figure walks over and says, "By the weapons you have given to us we have deduced that you are an Arulean warrior. We have some questions to ask you. If you do not answer them, my friend here will have no problem slicing you open like an orange."

"What major holiday is there the fewest guards guarding the Arulean borders?" the hooded figure asks Horace as he snatches the cloth out of his mouth. Horace spits in his face. "Very well then, Sam, as you wish." The hooded figure says as he stuffs the rag back down Horace's mouth.

The man then proceeds to cut off Horace's right ear with the "L" shaped tool. Horace's muffled screams are heard throughout the chamber as Alyss starts crying and Will holds her to comfort her. Once the man has severed Horace's ear he ties a cloth around the hole to stop the bleeding. He waits a few minutes for Horace to stop screaming.

The hooded figure then takes the rag out of Horace's mouth and says, "The holiday my friend?" Horace starts coughing and smiles. "Go to hell." He says through the coughs. Angry now the hooded figure stuffs the rag back into Horace's mouth and says, "Sam!"

The old man walks over to his brief case and grabs three needles. He walks back over to Horace and smiles. He then proceeds to stick one of the needles sideways into Horace's right eyeball. Horace passes out from the pain. The man then picks up another needle and rams it into his knee cap. Horace jolts awake biting down on the rag to try and relieve some of the pain.

He then pulls out the two needles he previously used and puts them in his pocket. He pulls out the last needle. It's a sewing needle with a long piece of black thread attached to the end of it. "I hope you've been wanting an eye patch" the old man says to Horace menacingly. He then proceeds to sew an eye patch onto Horace's right eye. Horace passes out again but this time the man continues working. 10 minutes later, his eye is completely sewed over with black thread.

The man then wakes up Horace by punching him in his genital area. Horace wakes up and bites down on the rag, shredding through it and cracking some of his teeth. Around 3 minutes later the man pulls the rag out of Horace's mouth and says, "The holiday?" Horace starts panting and says, "The….the….the King's….birthday." the boy then lies there unmoving, totally exhausted.

The men then promptly pack up the tools and start to head out. But before they can leave Horace is able to reach out and grab the bottom of the cloak of the hooded man. As the man starts to walk away his hood falls from his head. It's Gilan.

Horace gasps and coughs up blood, which he starts to choke on. Gilan then snickers and says, "You dirty little orphan." He then punches Horace in his right eye, the one that received the eye patch treatment. Horace screams from the pain and passes out almost instantly. Will and Alyss stare wide-eyed, speechless at their former friend. Not believing that it's him.

"What?" Gilan says. "You didn't think there was a bad side to me?"


	5. Chapter 5

**A****/N: Sorry I haven't written in a while guys…I kinda lost my motivation and enthusiasm for writing for a while there. I'm so sorry for making you guys wait this long. Please enjoy this chapter and review!**

_"What?" Gilan says. "You didn't think there was a bad side to me?"_

"Gilan?" Will says astounded. He stands up and walks to the bars of his cage and grips the bars with an iron force. "Why would you do something like this?" he says.

Gilan replies with, "I've put up with way to much crap from the king and his puppets for too long. I mean, look at you. They betrayed you, tried to kill you, made you an outcast, sent assassins after you. And yet you still try and help the king like he some kind of god. They brainwash everyone in the kingdom, and I'm making it my goal to ensure the kingdom is brought down.

"Thanks for telling us that." Will says sarcastically to Gilan. "It doesn't matter." he replies, "There is nothing you can do to stop me." Gilan and Sam then promptly walk out.

Will looks at Alice astounded. "We have to get out of here." He says. "Duh." She replies to him. She then reaches into her bra and pulls out a paper clip. "Step back" she says to him. She then walks over and reaches her hand through the bars and starts to pick the lock.

"_Chink" _the lock clicks open. Will and Alyss then instantly run over to Horace to see if they can help in any way. He looks up at them with his good eye and smiles awkwardly. "I have a plan he says."

They then discuss their plan and sit and wait for Gilan to come back down.

They all hear steps coming and get in their places, Horace lying in his cell, Alyss sitting in hers, and Will hanging from the ceiling.

Gilan walks down with what seems to be a crossbow in hand. He points it at Alyss. She ducks away as Horace screams, "Wait!"

Gilan turns before he can fire and sees Horace charging at him. He raises the crossbow to shoot but before he can get it up Will drops from the ceiling on top of him bringing him to the ground. The crossbow clangs to the ground and Horace quickly snatches it up and points it at Gilan.

Will pins his hands and legs to the ground so that Gilan cannot move. "Please don't kill me." Gilan says. "I'll do…" He doesn't get to finish the sentence because at that moment Alyss kicked him in his temple and he passes out.

Will quickly takes his cloak and puts it on. He also takes his double scabbard and his bow and quiver of arrows. He takes the sword out and hands it to Horace. "Let's go." Will says.

Will then screams, "Can I get a guard down here?" in a very Gilan-sounding voice. A few minutes later then hear a guard stumble through the door and Horace shoots him before he even knew there was a problem. Horace then hands the crossbow to Alyss. She reloads it then loots the guard and gets his axe. She trades Horace's sword for the axe and then ties the guards shield to his arm. Then they head up the stairs.

Will peeks through the door sees Erak discussing something with one of his advisors. He gently takes the crossbow from Alyss, aims it at the Oberjarl through a the small opening in the door, and fires. The arrow strikes the Oberjarl in the neck and he is dead before he can scream. Will then drops the cross bow and all the captives charge out attacking.

Horace engages 2 men head on, piercing one through his face and chops the other clean in half. Will sends an arrow at each of the four guards hitting them directly in the heart. Alyss follows doing nothing. They charge out of the castle to see 15 guards standing outside waiting for them.

Will quickly cuts every single guard down with his bow. He then runs inside to retrieve the arrows from the inside guards then moves to do the same with the ones outside.

Alyss notices a horse stable and says, "Follow me" as she leads them to it. They get to the horse stable and Horace stabs the guard through his heart. They walk inside and all three members get their respective horses back.

The entire entourage is ecstatic to get their beloved animal friends back. They mount the horses and sprint out of the stable to the exit gate. They ride out but then Horace turns back to see guards riding out, "I'll hold them off!" he says to Will and Alyss. "Where are y'all headed?"

"NO!" both Alyss and Will scream, ordering their horses to a halt. "It'll be ok." Horace says. "I'll meet up with you. Where are y'all heading?"

"To the Wakair." Will says. "Don't be too late." He says. "Don't worry, I won't Horace replies as he rides off to fight their pursuers. "Let's go Alyss. There was nothing we could do to stop him."

As they ride off the hear men screaming. As they ride further and further it muffles more and more until they can no longer hear it. They just hope that their friend is doing well.

As they ride for a few days they come across something rather peculiar. They see a Skandian army of about 30,000 warriors marching in the direction of Arulean.

Realization dawns upon Will as he realizes that the king must have declared war on Skandia for not returning his daughter. Will stops riding and tells Alyss what he has discovered.

"What should we do?" she asks. He replies with, "We either continue going to the Wakair to try and get his help, or we change rout and head to Arulean and tell the king whats coming, I know we can out run this army.

"Hmm…" Alyss mumbles. "The logical choice would be to head to Arulean, but then we would be leaving behind Horace." She says with sorrow in her voice.

Will ponders the situation for a moment. "The thing is Alyss…I think Horace is dead." Alyss looks at him as if she admits she thinks the same thing.

"I say we go to Arulean." Will says. Alyss nods in agreement. "Let's go." She says. They then turn their horses to Arulean, in an attempt to beat the Skanian army there in an attempt to rescue their homeland.


End file.
